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THE POSITION OP JOHN BELL AND HIS SUPPORTERS. 




SPEECH 

OF 

HON. HENRY WILSON, 

AT MYRICK'S, SEPTEMBEE 18, 1800. 



FROM THE» VERBATIM REPORT IN THE DAILY ATLAS AND BEE. 



PUBLISHED BY THE BEE PRINTING CO., Nos. 7 & 9 State Street, Boston. 



Fellow Citizens : When the year 1833 dawned, the fell 
spirit of nullification threatened the peace of the nation 
and the unit}' of the Republic; but the maliga couni;els 
of John C. Calhoun and his confederates were baffled by 
the inflexible firmness of Andrew Jackson, the concilia- 
tory counsels of Henry Clay, the inspiring appeals of 
Daniel Webster, and the lofty patriotism of the American 
people. Thomas U. Benton, in his "Thiity Years' View," 
tells us that " Mr. Calhoun, when he went home in the 
spring of 1833, told his friends ' that the South would 
never be united against the North on the Tariff question ; 
that the sugar interests of Louisiana would keep her out, 
and that the basis of southern union must be shifted to 
the slave question.' " Ilis associates and disciples pre- 
pared to ''force the issue upon the North," and that issue 
was unfaltering fidelity to human slavery in America. 

Andrew Jackson saw with clear vision the designs of 
the great nuUifier. and he declared that the tariff had 
been made the mere pretext for nullification — that the 
next pretext for disunion would be the slavery question. 
In June, 1833, Mr. Madison wrote Mr. Clay, " It is 
painful to see the unceasing efforts to alarm the South 
by imputations against the North, of unconstitutional 
designs on the subject of slavery." And that venerable 
statesman, in 1836, again wrote of a susceptibility of the 
contagion of the heresy of nulhfication, secession and 
disunion in the southern States, and of the '• inculcated 
impression of a permanent incompatibility of interests 
between the North and the South." " lie was," says 
Benton, " a southern man, but his southern home could 
not blind him to the origin, design and cou.sequences of 
the slavery agitation. He gives to that agitation a south- 
ern origin; to that design a disunion end; to that end 
disastrous consequences to the South and the North." 
Mr Calhoun proclaimed that 

" Many in the South once believed that slavery was a 
moral and pohtical evil; that folly and delu.sion are gone. 
We see it now in its true light, and regard it as the most 
safe and stable basis for free institutions in the world." 

His Lieutenant, Mr. McDuffie, declared that "slavery 
was the corner stone of the Republican edifice." Inspired 
by such counsels the aspiring men of the South rejected 
the ^ajfiments and theories of the Fathers of the Repub- 
lic, asSmned slavery to be a positive good, an institution 
to be fostered, nurtured, extended and nationalized. New 
theories of constitutional construction were invented and 
promulgated, and the policy of slavery extension and 
domination inaugurated. Then commenced the policy of 
slavery aggression, which has for a quarter of a century 
been pursued with reckless audacity and tireless energy, 
in defiant mockery of the sentiments of mankind and the 
laws of the living God. The right of petition was fur 
years cloven down, the constitutional right of the Free- 
dom of Speech and of the Press violated. Texas was now 
" to give," in the words of Gen. Hamilton, " a Gibralter 
to the South;" to "add," in the language of llenry A. 



Wise, ''more weight to her end of the beam." The army 
was marched to the banks of the Rio Grande, the nation 
drawn into a war, and half a million square miles of ter- 
ritory won. The North was forced iguominiously to 
abandon the policy of applying to the acquired territory 
the prohibition of slavery, and the foot of the slave was 
permitted to pollute soil consecrated to freedom by Mexi- 
can humanity and law. A Fugitive Slave la,w, inhuman 
and unchristian, was enacted, and public men and politi- 
cal organizations forced to endorse these victories of 
slavery over freedom. The proliibition of slavery in Kan- 
sas and Nebraska was abrogated, and the slave masters 
permitted to range with their bondmen over soil once 
consecrated to freedom. The Supreme Court was bid- 
den to decree in the Dred Scott case the dogmas ol slave 
propagandism, and the President directed to proclaim 
that by virtue of the constitution "the master has the 
right to take his slave into the Territories as property, 
and have it protected there under the Federal Constitu- 
tion;" that "neither Congress nor the Territorial Legisla- 
ture, nor any human power, has any authority to annul 
or impair this vested right." The nation has been forced 
to accept the creeds, acknowledge the sway, and bear the 
crimes of slave propagandism, and now slavery is master 
of the Republic. 

Issues growing out of the existence of human slavery in 
America are now the paramount issues before the na- 
tion. Shall slavery continue to expand? shall it continue 
to guide the councils of the Republic? or shall its ex- 
pansion be arrested, its power broken and it forced to re- 
tire under the cover of the locil laws under which it ex- 
ists? These issues loom up before the nation, dwarfing 
all other issues and subordinating all other questions. 
Public men and pohtical organizations are forced to ac- 
cept the transcendant issues growing out of the existence 
of slavery in America. 

The American Democracy, which for twenty -five years 
has borne the banners of slavery, won its victories and 
shared in its crimes against humanity, though broken 
into fragments, struggles on, faithful still to the interests 
of slavery. Breckinridge and Lane accept the creed of 
slavery expansion, slavery protection and slavery domi- 
nation. Douglas ■' don't care whether slavery is voted 
up or voted down," and Jolinson, commended by the 
Massachusetts Democracy at Springfield for his "honest 
and fearless promulgation of Democratic truth," pro- 
claims that it " is best that capital should own labor." 
The American Democracy, demoralized by slavery, has 
ceased to speak of the rights of man — it now speaks only 
of the rights of property in man! The Republican party, 
brought into existence by the aggressions of slavery upon 
freedom, cherishing the faitli of the founders of the Re- 
public, and believing with th<'lr chosen leader, Abriiham 
Lincoln, that " lie who would be no slave must consent to 
have no slave," pledges itself, all it is, all it hopes 
to be, to arrest the extension of slavery, banish it from 









"f 



the Territories, dethrone its power in the National Gov- 
ernment and force it back under the cover of State sover- 
eignty. 

While the conflict, the "irrepressible conflict," is going 
on between freedom and slavery ; while the nation is pro- 
foundly agitated with the great contest, and the eyes of 
the nation are upon us, a Convention assembles in the city 
of Baltimore to place in nomination a candidate for the 
Presidency. God in his providence imposes upon the 
men of this generation duties which must be bravely met 
or ignominioasly shunned. These men, representing 
portions of the American people, ingloriously shrank 
from the living issues of the age in America, proclaimed 
" that it is both the part of patriotism and of duty to re- 
cognize no political principle other than the Ooustitution 
of the Country, the Union of the States and the Enforce- 
ment of the Laws," and nominated for Chief Magistrate 
of the Republic John Bell, a slaveholder of slaveholding 
Tennessee. While this Convention, to delude, deceive 
and cheat the people of the North, proclaims that "it is 
the part ot patriotism and duty to ' recognize no princi- 
ple,' " the head and body of the party in the South vaunt 
their fidelity to slavery, and triumphantly appeal to the 
record of their chosen leader. 

The Union State Convention of Alaijama passes res- 
olutions, affirming that " neither Congress nor Territorial 
Legislature has any light or power to legislate on the 
subject, except so far as maybe necessary to protect the 
citizens of the Territory in the possession and enjoyment 
of this slave property;^' and " that the public speeches and 
acts of John Bell, during the period of thirty-five years of 
active service in high public stations, show conclusively 
that the principles and opinions set forth in the foregoing 
resolutions are in accordance with his own ; that he has 
never uttered a sentiment inconsistent therewith.'''' 
The Louisville Journal, the leading organ of Bell in 
the South, declares that, '' We hold that Congress pos- 
sesses the undoubted power to protect the rights of proper- 
ty of every kind in the Territories of the Union, and that 
it is the unquestionnble duty of Congress to exercise this 
power ivhenever it is necessary. And we hold that the 
right of slave property in the Territories is justas sacred 
as the rig it of property of any other sort. * * * * 

John Bell's record, as compiled under his own eye for 
the special purpose of setting forth in an authentic form 
his opinion on the minor issues of our politics, and as 
recently published at length in our columns, commits 
him unequivocally and indisputably to the i^ery doctrine " 
— that is to the slave code- 
Some days ago I addressed a public meeting in the city 
of Boston in regard to the position of John Bell and his 
supporters, upon the issues growing out of the existence 
of human slavery in the Republic. I see by the public 
press that Mr. Leverett Saltonstall flippantly and defiant- 
ly denies that John Bell is a " pro-slavery man." Mr. J. 
Thomas Stevenson exclaimed with characteristic eiiiphasis, 
" John Bell of Tennes.see an exponent of pro-slavery ! 
His rccoi-d which is open, without a blot on it, puts to 
shame the alienation." These emphatic sentences of 
Stevenson are, if not of " learned length," of " thun- 
dering sound." As this Mr. Leverett Saltonstall is 
charged with the vast respon.sibility of keeping Mr. 
Everett's record, it may be that he knows nothing of 
John Bell's record, and I acquit him of intentional 
misstatements, and charitably ascribe his flippant ut- 
terances to that zeal which is without knowledge. Let 
Saltonstall p:iss! But Mr. J. Thomas Stevenson vaunts 
his knowledge of John Bell's record, for he tells us 
how " he stood up with Roman firmness for a gen- 
eration in steady opposition to the heresies of ultra men 
in his own section;" — how " he stood beside John Quincy 
Adams through all his struggle for the right of petition," 
and what other heroic deeds he performed. 

To-Jay I propose to speak of John Bell and of his sup- 
porters. I mean to present the record of John Bell, run- 
ning through twenty-six years in the Congress of the 
United States, and leave these assembled thousands of 
the freemen of Massachusetts to determine whether Mr. 
J. Thomas Stevenson is a " monomaniac," to use h s own 
words, or whether " he means to deceive." I mean, gen- 
tlemen, to " put to shame his allegations;" and the pert 
utterances of his confederates. 

John Bell is a slaveholder. He works many slaves as 
mechanics or laborers in iron foundries in Tennessee. A 
few weeks after the Pre.sidential election in 1S56, a con- 
templated insurrection of slaves was discovered. Many 
were arrested, tried by vigilance committees and madden- 
ed and brutal mobs, inhumanly lashed and tortured, and 
many of them executed. Some of John ]5ell's .slaves were 
charged with being engaged in this attempt to rise, and 
were tried and executed. The soul sickens at the cruelties 
perpetrated upon the helpless victims, charged with in- 



surrectionary designs, by excited, alarmed and maddened 
men. John Bell's slaves may not have been engaged in 
that wild attempt to rebel against toiling without wages, 
but some of them were accused of it, tried, and put to 
death. Mr. J. Thomas Stevenson denies that John Bell 
is a pro-slavery man. His "record," he asserts, "puts 
to shame the allegation." If John Bell's dying slaves had 
agreed with Stevenson, — if they had known as Stevenson 
professes to know, that his "record puts to shame the al- 
legation that he is a pro-slavery man," they might never 
have joined in that conspiracy against pro-slavery men, 
who demand and enforce work without wages. 

But John Bell's record is " without a blot," exclaims 
the emphatic and awe-inspiring Stevenson. 

In a speech running through four days, in July, 1850, 
John Bell made one of the most elaborate defences of hu- 
man slavery ever uttered in the halls of the Congress of 
the United States. J. Thomas Stevenson repels the alle- 
gation that John Bell is a pro-slavery man. Listen, men 
of Massachusetts, you who believe slavery to be a crime 
against man and a sin against Almighty God, to the words 
not of the Stevensons and the Saltonstalls, but of John 
BeU,utteredon the floor of the Senate ten years ago,when 
the issue was whether slave masters should be permitted 
to carry their bondm'en into the vast territory won from 
Mexico, or whether it should be the home of freedom and 
Iree institutions for all. Standing on the floor of the 
American Senate, John Bell tittered these words in vindi- 
cation of slavery and its results in America : 

"As to the lawfulness or sinfulness of the institution of 
slavery — whatever frenzied or fanatic priests or more 
learned and rational divines may preach, whatever they 
may affirm of christian precepts or moral and religious 
responsibilities — whatever interpretation of the law of 
nature or of Almighty G od they may announce — what- 
ever doctrines or theories of the equalities of human 
rights, and of the different races of mankind, infidel 
philanthropists, or the disciples of a transcendental 
creed of any kind, may hold or teach, however they may 
dogmatize upon this hypothesis, and declare it to be a 
violation of the law ol nature, for any race, to subjugate 
those of an inferior graile, and make them the instni- 
ment of improvement and amelioration in their own con- 
dition, as well as in that of masters or conquerors, in 
carrying forward the great work of civilization until we 
shall be enlightened by a revelation from a higher source 
than themselves, 1 must claim the privilege of interpret- 
ing the law of nature by what I see revealed in the histo- 
ry of mankind from the earliest period of recorded time, 
uncontradicted by Divine authority." 

"Sir, making all due allowances for American enter- 
prise and energies of free labor, with all the inspiring ad- 
vantages of our favorite system of government, / doubt 
whether the power and resources of the country would, have 
attained more than one-half their present extraordinary 
proportions, but for the so tnuch reviled institution of 
.slavery. Sir, your rich and varied commerce, external 
and internal; your navigation ; your commercial marine, 
the nursery of the military ; your ample revenue ; the 
public credit; your manufactures ; your rich, populous, 
and splendid cities — all, all may trace to this instituiion, 
as their well-spring, their present gigantic proportions.^' 

*##»**♦* 

" Sir, the fabled birth of Minerva, leaping in full pano- 
ply from the head of Jove, if a truth and no fiction, 
would scarcely be more wonderful, or a greater mystery, 
without the clue which African slavery furnishes for the 
.solution of it." 

******** 

" Yet slavery, in every form in which it has existed 
from the primitive period of organized society — from its 
earliest and patriarchal form to this time, in every quar- 
ter of the globe — and in all its results — even the magnifi- 
cent result of African slavery in the United States, is de- 
clared to be against the law of nature. * * * 
Yet slavery and all its beneficent results are pronounced 
to be against the will of God, by those who claim a supe- 
rior illumination upon the subject. * * * . * 
It seems to my weak faculties, that it is rather an jkiflFo- 
gant and presumptuous arraignment of the ways of prov- 
idence, mysterious as we know them to ! e, for feeble man 
to declare, that that which has been permitted to exist 
from the beginning, among men and nations, is contrary 
to its will." 

John Bell tells the christian men of America that it is 
an arrogant and presumptuous arraignment of the ways of 
Providence to declare that slavery "iS contrary to its will.'' 
Entertaining sentiments like these concerning human sla- 
very and its results in America, he proclaims that " hu- 
manity to the slave as well, not less than justice to the 
master, recom^iends the policy of diffusion and exten- 



<-, sion into any new Territory adapted to its condition .'" 
^■' Entertaining these sentiments in fiivor of slavery, its re- 
sults and its expansion, no wonder he rejects the theory 
-of the power of the peop'e to legislate on that question. 
J He declares that " the people of a Territory, when they 
^ came to Jonn their State constitution, and then onlv, 
.; were qualified to establish their domestic institutions?'' 
lie also declares "that the constitution, /)ro/;r(o (v'^ore, 
that the flag of the Union protects the citizen in the en- 
joyment of his rights of property of every description re- 
cognized as such, in any of the States, on every sea, and 
in every Territory of the Union." 

John Bell entered Congress in 1827, and united in the 
cry against the administration of John Quincy Adams. 
Mr. J. Thomas Stevenson tells us that he stood beside 
John Quincy Adams in his long contest for the right of 
petition. Let us turn to that record. 

In January, 1836, Mr. Jarvis of Maine introduced a 
resolution, to the effect that any petition praying for the 
abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia ought to 
be laid on the table, without being referred or printed. 
This blow, aimed at the right of petition, was promptly 
met by John Quincy Adams. He moved to lay the reso- 
lution on the table. This was the beginning of the great 
and memorable contest which for so many ye;irs raged in 
the House of Representatives and convulsed the nation, 
and in which Mr. Adams won unfadins laurels, which 
even now call forth the praises of the Hillards an<l Ste- 
vensons of Massachusetts, who do not fail to affirm that 
Mr. Adams was right. At Worcester, Mr. Stevenson sig- 
nified his approval of the course of Mr. Adams, and en- 
deavored to make capital for John Bell by asserting that 
he "stood by" Mr. Adams in this bitter contest. But, 
fellow citizens, let me tell you in what way Mr. Bell "stood 
by" — a thing Mr. Stevenson forgot to do — he '■'•stood by'''' 
Mr. Adams, and voted against his motion to lay that in- 
famous gag resolution on the table. Henry A. AVise, 
then as now a fiery champion of .slavery, moved to amend 
Jarvis's resolution by denying the power of Congress to 
abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. Chilton Allen 
of Kentucky moved to lay the resolution and amend- 
ments upon the table. Adams, Jackson, Hoar, Lincoln, 
Gushing, Briggs, and their associiites, true to the senti- 
ments and opinions of Massachusetts, voted for this gen- 
erous proposition of slaveholding Kentucky, while John 
Bell, Henry A. Wise, and the discipies of John G. Cal- 
houn '■'stood by" and voted in the negative. This is the 
manner in which John Bell '■'stood, by^^ John Quincy 
Adams on the right of petition. 

lu May , 1836, Pinckney of South Carolina introduced 
his resolutions ag.iinst the right of petition, and these 
resolutions, strangling the rights of the people, passed 
the House, being forced through under the pressure of 
the previous question. John Bell again '^stood by'''' Mr. 
Adams and the right of petition, by dodging the vote. 

In 1837, Mr. Hawes of Kentucky introduced a resolu- 
tion, "that all petitions, memorials, resolutions, proposi- 
tions or papers, relating in any way or to any exfeut 
whatever to the subject of slavery, shall, without bvitig 
printed or referred, be laid on the table, and that no fur- 
ther action be had thereon." John Bell, and the repre- 
sentatives of the Calhoun Democracy, again "stood by" 
and voted for this resolution. John Quincy .\dams and 
his ius.sociates voted against this resolution, which vio- 
lated one of the dejirest rights of the freemen of the 
nation. 

Tu Dec. 1837, Mr. Patton of Va., moved co 8U--'pend the 
rules, in order to introduce a resolution similar tu the 
one proposed by Mr. Hawes. John Bell and his compeers 
of the Calhoun Democracy again " stood by " and voted 
for the suspension of the rules — Mr. Adiims and friends 
voting in the negative. 

In Dec. 1837, Mr. Adams presented petitions for the 
abolition of slavery and the slave trade in the District of 
Columbia, and moved their reference to a committee. 
John Bell '■'stood by'''' Mr. Adams on this question as be- 
fore, and with Henry A. Wise and the ultras voted against 
the reference. On the; same day Mr. Adams otTered some 
more petitions, and made the same motion of reference ; 
and John Bell, true to his slaveholding instincts, again 
"stood by," and with the politicians of the South Caro- 
lina .school, voted Nay. 

lu 1837. John Quincy Adams presented to the House 
the petition of eight women of Fredericksburg, Va. Mr. 
P.atton of that State moved a suspension of the rules co 
enable him to offer a resolution to return that petition to 
Mr. Adams. This proposition, .so insulting to John 
Quincy Adams, afforded another occasion for John Bell 
to •'■stand by-'' the champion of the right of petition, 
which he did, by voting in favor of the insult. 

Early in Dec. 1838, a .-eries of pro-slavery resolutions 
were prepared by Mr. Rhett of S. 0., and adopted by a 



caucus which assembled at his instance. Charles (i. Ath- 
erton of Now Hampshire, in the House, moved a suspen- 
sion of the rules to enable him to offer these resolutions. 
As it required a two-thirds vote to suspend the rules, the 
triends of the right of petition could kill the resolutions 
only by preventing the rules from being suspended, and 
on this test vote, John Bell again "stood by^^ and voted 
to suspend — Mr. Adams, with Mr. Fillmore and his 
frienis voting No. The rules were suspended, and the 
resolutions of the caucus were introduced. For the four 
first resolutions John Bell voted, and for a part of the 
fifth ; to the effect. that all attempts to abolish slavery in 
the District or Territories, or to prevent the removal of 
slaves from State to State would be a violation of the 
constitution and destructive of the fundamental princi- 
ple on which the Union rests. The portion rel.ating to 
the right of petition Mr. Bell voted against. These reso 
lufious of Atherton were deemed so extraordinary that 
a few days after their introduction, Mr. Caleb Cvishing of 
Massachusetts met them by offering a series of counter 
resolutions, most carefully prepared, in which the propo- 
sitions of Atherjpn were cpntroverted with great clear- 
ness and ability. 

On the 13th of December, 1838, Mr. Slade of Vermont 
moved to suspend the rules to enable him to introduce a 
resolution to the effect that so much of the Atherton 
resolutions as relates to " the removal of slaves from 
State to State," and prohibits the action of this House on 
every petition, memorial, resolution, proposition, or pa- 
per touching " the same be, and hereby is rescinded. 
John Quincy Adams voted for this motion — John Bell 
voted against it. 

Under the despotic course of these southern fire-eaters 
in Congress who had trampled in the dust the sacred 
right of petition, the anti-slavery sentiment of the north- 
ern States grew with fearful rapidity and bid fair to sweep 
everything before it, and it was found necessary in the 
year 1840 to change the tactics hitherto positively adhered 
to. AV'e accordingly find Mr Bell and some others this 
year taking a moderate course, and recording their votes 
against the obnoxious 21st rule. 

Mr. J. Thomas Stevenson oracularly proclaimed at Wor- 
cester th.at the " record of John Bell, which is open with- 
out a blot on it, puts to shame the allegation that he is 
an exponent of pro-slavery," that he " stood up with Ro- 
man firmness, for a generation, in steady opposition to the 
heresies of ultra men of his own section." Men of Mas- 
sachusetts I I now give you that "record without a blot" 
on the great question whether the Territories shall be 
polluted with slavery or consecrated to freedom, to free 
labor and to free laboring men. As you examine this 
dark "record " for slavery, you will instinctively exclaim, 
" Mr. J. Thomas Stevenson is a monomaniac, or he means 
to deceive the people of Massachusetts." 

John Bell entered the Senate in the year 1847. At this 
time the nation was profoundly agitated with the Territo- 
rial questions growing out of the annexation of Texas, 
and the contemplated acquisitions from Mexico. This 
Mexican territory would come to our hands free; and the 
people of the North demanded that it should be kept free, 
and not be suffered by us to rel.apse into a condition which 
would not be tolerat^ed by semi-b.arbarous Mexico. The 
slave propagandists and perpstualists demanded the right 
to take their slaves into this free territory and keep them 
there under the protection of the national flag. John C. 
Calhoun, the great champion of the slave interests, pro- 
claimrtl, in the words of Mr. Benton, " the supreme dog- 
ma of the transmigratory function of the constitution." 
He denied that " the laws of Mexico could keep slavery 
out of the acquired territory." He declared that the 
con.stitution with its "■ overriding control ''^ would carry 
into and protect in the new Territories slaves as property. 
These assumptions of Mr. Calhoun, which were entirely 
contrary to all the previous opinions ot the eminent ju- 
rists and statesmen who framed the constitution and ear- 
ly administered it, -were resisted by Mr. Webster, Mr. 
.John Davis, Mr. Hamlin, Mr. John A. Dix ot New York, 
Roger S. Baldwin ot Connecticut, Mr. Benton and others, 
then acknowledged to be the leading etntesmen of the 
\Vljig and of the Democratic parties. But these perni- 
cious theories were sustained by Jefferson Ilavis, Senators 
Mason and Hunter, Henry S . Foote, and with them co-ope- 
rated John Bell. They have now become the doc- 
trines of the slave code Democracy, and of most of Mr. 
Bell's supporters in the slaveholding States. 

Early in 1848 John Bell voted with the " ultra men of 
his section," to lay on the table resolutions introduced 
by Mr. Baldwin of Connecticut, in favor of excluding 
slavery by fundamental law, from the territory about to 
be acquired from New Mexico. Was this standing up 
with " Roman firmness " against the " ultra men of his 
section?" }.n 1848 Mr. Clayton reported a bill to establish 



Territorial Governments in Oregon, New Mexico and Cali- 
tornia. This bill proposed to refer all questions of sla- 
very in the Territories, to the Supreme Court. This was 
a most dangerous proposition, as the dogmas in the Dred 
Scott decision demonstrate ; and John Bell steadily sup- 
ported this insidious measure, which was intended to ob- 
tain a Dred Scott decision. 

Mr. Clark of Khode Island moved to add to the sixth 
section that "no law, regulation or act of the government 
of said Territory, permitting slavery, shall be valid un- 
less the i^ame shall be approved by Congress." Bell voted 
against this amendment with the pro-slavei-y champions 
of the 8outh. 

JMr. Baldwin of Connecticut moved to amend Mr. 
Clayton's bill by making it the duty of the Attorneys of 
the Territories to sue out the writ of habeas corpus on the 
complaint of any person that he is held as a slave and to 
test his cause in the Territorial courts, and in case the de- 
cision is against him, to take the cause to the Supreme 
Court of the United States, and to notify the Attorney 
General to appear therein and defend the S!vme. The ul- 
tra men of the riouth and John Bell voted against this 
measure in lavur of humanity and personal freedom. 

Mr. Davis of Massachusetts moved to junend Mr. Clay- 
ton's bili by adding that there shall be neither slavery 
nor involuntary servitude in the Territory. John Bell vot- 
ed — No. VVUen he voted with Davis, Foote, llunter. Mason 
and their ultra associates against the proposition of Honest 
John Davis, was he not "an exponent of pro-slavery"? 
or was John Davis an exponent of slavery ? 

Mr. Walker of Wisconsin moved to amend the Civil and 
Diplomaio bill by extendiug the constitution and laws of 
the United States over the Territories. This proposition, 
Mr. Beutou ,says, was prompted by Mr. Calhoun, and "was 
nothing but a new scheme for the extension of slavery." 
Denying the power of Congress to legislate upon slavery in 
the Territories— fiujing slavery actually excluded from the 
ceded Teri-itories, and desirous to get it there — "Mr. Cal- 
houn, the real author of Mr. Walker's amendment, took 
the new conception of carrying the constitution into 
them, which arriving there, and recognizing slavery, and 
being the supreme law of the land, it would override the 
anti-slavery laws of the Territory, and plant the institu- 
tion of slavery under its segis, and above the reach of any 
Territorial laws or law of Congress to abolish it." This 
" new scheme for the extension of slavery," which came 
from the fertile brain of the great champion of slavery in 
America, was resisted by Daniel Webster with all his 
power. Calhoun came to the support of his device to 
override the anti-slavery laws of the Territories, and 
avowed, says Mr. Benton, "his intent to carry slavery 
into these Territories under the wing of the constitution, 
and openly treated as enemies of the South all that op- 
posed it." This scheme, the boldest and most aggressive 
movement ever made in Congress for the extension of 
slavery, was supported by the ultra men of the South, 
and opposed with determined resolution by Webster, 
Davis, Hamlin, Baldwin, Dayton, Benton and their asso- 
ciates. On this great device to extend slavery over hun- 
dreds of thousands of square miles of territory, where 
stood John Bell, the man the liberty -loving men of Mass- 
achusetts are now summoned to support by the Uillards, 
the Stevensons and the .Saltonstalls? Did he stand up 
" with Koman firmness" by the side of Webster, Davis 
and their associates against the " ultra men of his sec- 
tion"? or did he go with Calhoun, Mason, Davis, Foote 
and their compeers for this " new scheme for the exten- 
sion of slavery"? John Bell steadily and persistently 
voted for this measure of slavery propagandism with the 
men of the Calhoun school. This amendment was carried, 
Went to the House, and the House, on motion of Richard 
W. Thompson of Indiana, voted to amend it so that the 
existing laws there should be retained and observed until 
the fourth of July, 1850. The bill with Walker's amend- 
ment as amended by the House went back to the Senate. 
John Bell voted against the House amendment which pre- 
served the anti-slavery laws of the acquired Territories,for 
twenty -eight months ; thus giving Congress or the people 
of the Territories an opportunity to keep slavery out for- 
ever ; and when the passage of the Civil and Diplomatic bill 
was endangered by this Walker amendment, John Bell vot- 
ed against receding. To the last John Bell adhered to this 
device of John C. Calhoun for the extension of slavery 
over the Territories won from Mexico. In this bitter and 
prolonged contest was Daniel Webster — was John Davis 
' 'an exponent of pro-slavery ? " or was John Bell ' "an expo- 
nent of pro-slavery?" Men of Massachusetts, would you 
blot out this "record" of Webster and Davis? or would you 
not rather enise this pro-slavery "record" of John Bell, 
which Steventon boasts is "without a blot?" Shame on 
such a "record," and shame on the Massachusetts man 
who win pronounce such a "record"'"without a blot I" 



Mr. Douglas moved in 1849 that the Missouri Compro- 
mise line be extended to t:ie Pacific Ocean. This propo- 
sition Wiis made in the interests of slavery. It was not 
a proposition like thu original compromise to extend the 
line through slave territory, but it was a proposition to 
extend that line through free territory, and to give to 
slavery tens of thousands of square miles of free soil. 
Did John Bell stand up with Roman firmness against this 
pro-slaverv proposition? Did he stand with Webster, 
Davis, Hale, HamUn, Baldwin, Dayton, Corwin and their 
associates who stood with Roman firmness as the expo- 
nents of freedom? or did he stand with the "ulrra men 
of his section" — Atchinson, Butler, Calhoun, Davis, 
Hunter and the "exponents of pro-slavery?" John Bell 
voted with the Borlands and the Footes for the extension 
of the Missouri Compromise line through free territory to 
the Pacific ; and when the representatives of the people 
rejected this unhallowed proposition, John Bell, the con- 
sistent "exponent of pro-slavery," voted against receding. 

In the winter of 1850 John Bell introduced nine resolu- 
tious concerning the Territories; among these resolutions 
was one to the effect that "• all the territory ceded to the 
United States by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, lying 
west of said Territory of New Mexico, and east of the 
contemplated new State of California, for the present 
continue one Territory wiTnoni any restriction as to 

SLAVERY." 

Another of these resolutions referred to California. 
Foote of Mississippi moved to refer these resolutions, 
with others, to a special committee of thirteen. Mr. 
Hamlin, anxious to admit the free State of California into 
the Union without associating it with the questions con- 
nected with New Mexico, Utah, the Texas boundary and 
the Fugitive Slave bill, moved " that nothing in this res- 
olution shall be construed to authorixe the said commit- 
tee to take into consideration anything that relates to 
the admission of California into the Union." Benton, 
Webster, and their associates voted for Hamlin's mo- 
tion ; John Bell voted with the " ultra men of his 
section," against the motion. He and his pro-slavery 
friends .wanted to keep free California in their hands to 
win concessions to slavery. Walker moved to exceiit so 
much of the resolutions proposed to be referred to the 
committee by Foote's resolution as relates to the recap- 
ture of fugitives from labor, and John Bell voted with 
the ultra southern men against the motion; Hamlin, 
Davis and others voted for it. 

The Committee of Thirteen, of which John Bell was a 
member, reported a series of measures kuown as the 
Compromise .Measures yf 1850; the admission of Califor- 
nia — the suppression of the slave trade — the Texas Bound- 
ary bill — the organization of the Territories of Utah and 
New Mexico without the exclusion of slavery, and the Fu- 
gitive Slave biU. 

When these bills were under consideration, amend- 
ments were proposed involving issues between freedom 
and slavery. Where stood John Bell on these questions? 
Was he with the slave propagandists, or with the friends 
of freedom? The " record" will^show whether he stood 
with " Roman firmness" " in opposition to the ultra men 
of his section," or whether he enrolled his name with the 
exponents of the sentiments and opinions of the friends 
of freedom. 

Mr. Turney of Tennessee moved to limit the southern 
boundary of California to 36 deg. 30 min., and to extend 
the Missouri Compromise to the Pacific. This was a mo- 
tion aimed at California, and in the interests of slavery, 
and John Bell voted for it. 

Mr. Turney again moved the limitation of the southern 
boundary of California to 36 deg. 30 min, ; his object be- 
ing to get slavery into southern California, and this 
proposition received the vote of John Bell. 

Mr. Davis of Mississippi moved that all laws and usa- 
ges existing in said Territories, interfering with any spe- 
cies of property, be declared null and void. This was a 
motion to abrogate the laws of Mexico, prohibiting slave- 
ry, and to faciUte the introduction of slaves into the vast 
territory acquired of that power; and it received the vote 
of John Bell, Atchison, Foote, Soule, Mason, and their 
pro-slavery compeers, while Benton, Cass, Hamlin, Chase, 
and our own Davis voted ag.iinst it. 

Mr. Davis of Miss, moved "that nothing herein contained 
shall be construed so as to prevent said Territorial Legisla- 
ture from passing such laws as may be necessary tor the pro- 
tection of the rights of the property of every kind which 
may have been or may be hereafter conformably to the 
constitution and laws of the I'nited States, held in, or 
introduced into, said Territory." Mr. Davis prefaced this 
proviso with some remarks, declaring his object to be to 
assert the duty of the government to protect slavery. 

Mr. Chase moved " that nothing herein contained shall 



be construed as authorizing or permittins tlie introduc- 
tion of slavery," and Mr. Bell voted No. 

WTiile this amendment of Mr. Davis's wa.s pending, Mr. 
Bell advocated it, in order " that the principles of the 
constitution " might b'' left •■ to rheir full and tair opera- 
tion " and that "the South might look with some confi- 
dence to the protection of sliive property in this Territory 
through the Courts of the United States." 

John Bell voted Hgaiust an aujendment offered to the 
bill hy Mr. Baldwin, declaring that "the Mexican laws 
prohibiting slavery should be and remain in force in said 
Territory until they should be altered or repealed by Con- 
gress.' He voted against the amendment offered by Mr. 
steward, that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, 
otherwi.se than for conviction of crime, shall ever be al- 
lowed in either of said Territories of Utah and New Mexi- 
co." He voted also in favor of an amendment offered by 
Mr Berrien of Georgia providing again- 1 the passage of 
any Territorial law "establishing or prohibing slavery." 
Mr. Chase moved that there should be neither slavery 
nor involuntary servitude in the Terriiori^s of Utah anil 
Mew Mexico, and John Bell voted against that amend- 
ment. 

In giving these votes on the organization of the Territo- 
ries, John Bell accepted all the doctrines of the Calhoun 
school, and linked his name indissolubly with the cham- 
pions of slavery propagandism. 

When the Fugitive Slave bill was pending, Mr. Dayton 
moved an amendment prepared by .Mr. Webster before 
he left the Sena'e, granting to captured fugitives the 
right of Ti'ial by Jury, and John Bell voted against giving 
the bondmen a jury tris"!. vVebster drew this amendment 
and Winthrop voied for it, but John Bell, whose record 
Stevens;^ tells us is without a blot, enrolled his name 
ivirh the ultra men of his section against this measure of 
justice and humanity 

Our own Senator, Mr. Winthrop, nioved to grant to 
fugitive slaves the right to the writ of habeas corpus, and 
John Bell voted against that. Will J. Thomas Stevenson 
tell the people of Massachusetts there is no "blot" on 
that "record" of John Bell's against allowing to a fellow 
being claimed as a bondman the grea. writ of right? 

Mr. Dav's of Mass.-ichusetts moved to amend the Fugi 
tive Slave bill by making it the duty of District Attor- 
neys, whenever any mariner or free (colored person shall 
be imprisoned without any alleged crime, to bring 
such per.son by a. writ of /wieas corp«s before any Judge 
of the District Courts of the United States, who shall 
inquire whether he is legally held, and, if not, to dis- 
charge him, the expenses to be paid by the United States. 
Davis, Winthrop and Dayton voted for the amendment; 
John Bell voted with Butier. Soule and Jefferson Davis, 
against it. Yes, John Bell, of "Koman firmness," had no 
vote to give for this amendment moved by John Davis for 
the protection of the free colored men of Massachusetts 
pining in South Carolina prisons, charged with no offence 
but the crime of having "a skin not colored like our 
own." Is there no " blot upon that record"? VVid the 
emphatic Stevenson, the solemn Saltonstall, the plaintive 
Hillard, answer? 

John Bell voted to hold the Marshal, for the es- 
cape of any fugitive held in his custody, whether with 
or without his consent, for the full value of said fugitive. 
Uamlin, Dayton and Winthrop voted against this strin- 
gent proposition; but .lohn Bell would darken even the 
Fugitive Slave act of 850, for which he voted, after hav- 
ing voted against every humane effort to make it less ab- 
horrent to mankind. 

On the bill to suppress the slave trade, which had long 
darkened and polluted the national Capitol, John Bell 
united with the ultra slaveholders of the South — with 
itutler, Soule, Jefferson Davis, and their confederates, and 
voted against it. John Davis, Winthrop, Benton and 
others voted for that act of humanity. llunianity, the 
iiatiooal character, common decency, liemaiided the sup- 
pression of that intamnvis traffic in the District of Colum- 
bia, but John Bell, the statesman whom, the christian peo- 
ple of Massachusetts are vauntingly told, has a "recoril 
without a blot," and for whom they are asked to vote, to 
•'beat Lincoln," had no vote to give for a measure which 
would suppress that revolting traffic in the souls and 
bodies of men. 

In 1850 John Bell voted for Pratt's motion to consider 
the bill for enticing slaves to escape from the District of 
Columbia. Benton, Cass, Davis, Uamlin and others 
voted against it. John Bell voted to imprison any free 
person wh" should harbor any s.ave or slaves with the in- 
tent to assist him, her or them to escape from service in 
the District of Columbia, in the penitentiary fora term not 
exceeding five years. Benton, Davis, Fremont. Uamliir and 
Winthrop voted against it, and defeated the inhuman prop- 
ouitioa. Jolm Bell voted that the Corporation of Washing- 



ton and Georgetown shall be invested with power to prohib- 
it the coming of free negroes to reside in the District, and 
to enforce their removal bj' imprisonment at labor for six 
months. Hamlin, Fremont, Benton, Davis, Seward and 
Wintbrop voted against it, and that inhuman proposition 
was defeated, and defeated hy votes of southern men. 
Yet Stevenson gives him a clear "record >vithout a blot!" 
If there is no blot upon this record of John Bell, pray 
tell us, Mr. Stevenson, if you think the record of Davis 
and Wiothrop is blotted or blurred by voting against that 
measure for wh'ch Bell voted. 

In 1849 Mr Hale presented a petition from female 
inhabitants of the United States for the suppression 
of the slave trade and against Che extension of slav- 
ery. John Bell then voted to lay it on the table. 
Mr. Hale, in 1850, moved that the petition of the citi- 
zens of Stockhridgi' be referred to the Committee of Thir- 
teen. Atchinson moved that the motion do lie on the 
table Bell voted with Atchinson. Seward, Hamlin, Da- 
vis, Dayton and others against it. Mr. Seward made a 
proposition to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, 
with the assent of the people of the District, and to make 
compensation for the same. John Bell, ever true to sla- 
very, voted against it. He would not permit the people 
of Washington to vote upon the question of making the 
national capital free. 

In 1854 Mr. Douglas reported the bill for the organiza- 
tion of the Territory of Kansas without any repealing 
clause in i-egard to thu act of 1820, prohibiting slavery. 
5tr. Dixon, an old line Whig, proposed the repeal of the 
Missoui'i prohibition. This question was considered in 
the Territorial Committee, of which John Bell wasa mem- 
ber, and he consented to the X'eport in favor of the repeal 
of the Missouri Compromise ; — and on motion of Mr. 
Douglas to amend the original proposition by substituting 
the clause as it now stands, he voted for it. His record 
shows that he voted to put into the bill for the organiza- 
tion of the Territories of K.ansas and Nebraska the clause 
repealing the prohibition of slavery north of 36 30. He 
kept bis record clean in ravor of slavery. While the bill 
was pending, Mr. Chase moved that the people of the 
Territory, through their appropriate representatives, 
may, if they see fit, prohibit the existence of slavery 
therein. Bell voted against it. Mr. Chase moved to 
amend by providing that the people should choose 
their own Go'^ernor for two years. Biill voted No. A 
caucus of southern Whig members of the Senate was 
held, over which Mr. Toombs presided, and which Mr. 
Bell attended. This caucus of ten southern Whigs 
choiie a committee consisting of Messrs. Clayton. Badger, 
and Bell, to wait upon the editors of the National Intel- 
ligenrfr and present to those gentlemen a resolution to 
the effect— 

" That we disapprove of the course of the National Iti- 
telligenrer upon the Nebraska bill ; and that, in our opin- 
ion, it does n<it truly represent the opinions of the VVhig 
party of the South.'' 

It was understood in this caucus that the Whig Sena- 
ators of the South were unanimous for the Kansas-Ne- 
braska bill. Mr. Badger said on the floor of the Senate: 

"■1 think it right to say, and I t/iink I have their aii- 
thnrily to say, that with regard to the results to which I 
have come upon this measure, we all agree as one man — 
every southern Whig Senator. 1 ivish that to he under- 
stood, ilii'i ihi i'i:-iiiiiin of gentlemen may not be mistaken 
hecnu^i till ij har, not yet had the opportunity of speaking 
or votinu; ii/idii this bill.'''' 

Mr. Bell liad i:i the previous session opposed the organ- 
ization of this Territory, chiefly on account of the In- 
dians, and he voted against the final passage of the bill. 
But his votes on the details of the bill had been such 
and his .action .so strangely unsteady that he had quite a 
sharp controversy on he floor of the Senate, with Mr. 
Clayton, Mr. Baclger, and espei-ially with Mr. Toon>bs. 

Border ruffi.mism invaded Kansas, seized the ballot- 
boxes on the 30tli of March, 1855, elected a Legislature, 
and that I.egisltiture enacted a slave code, inhuman, un- 
'•christiaii, devilish. Armed men invaded the Territory — 
pre.s,<es were destroyed ; towns and cabins burned ; brave 
men arrested, b.iuisbed, murdered for fidelity to freedom; 
higliways were closed and men were arrested under charge 
of treason, for framing a free State constitution, and 
asking admission into the Union. Appeals as e.iniest as 
ever came from the lips of man were atldressed to Con- 
gress to right the wrongs of Kansas. In that crisis of 
the affairs of that Territory when armed hordes were 
ranging the country, when active free State men were 
held under arrest;, when the Missouri Hiver was closed by 
ariiicd force, when the ])eople were overborne, the Toombs 
hill was contrived and so framed as not to require the 
submission of the constitution to the people. Gov. Kob- 
inson and his associates, held under charge of treason, in 



the camp near Lecompton, sent this message to me in 
Washinston : 

'' We wish simply to say to you and our friends in Con- 
gress that such a proceeding will, of course, result in a 
slave State constitution. The Missourians, if there 
should be any necessity for their beins in KansMS,wil' be 
here both to hive their names registered and to vote. 
No one who haslivcdherefor tlie last yearcan doubt this." 
Mr. G. W. Deitz'er endorsed upon that message these 
words: " The plan of Mr. Toombs, if adopted, will en- 
tomb the cause of freedom in Kansas " 

The chiefs of border ruffianism in western Missouri, in 
anticipatiori of the passage of this Toombs bill, issued 
their call for action. TTandbills containina; these words 
were scattered among the people, already dcenly excited : 

" F.1NS.\S TO BE MADE A SLAVE STATE 1 — MiSSOtJRIANS TO 

vonRHUTT'. It may be regarded as certain thst the bill 
to organize a State constitution in Kansas will, if it has 
not already, become a law; it has passed the Senate and 
will pass the House. 

You have the right to go — it is your duty to go— your 
interpsts prompt you to go — your very necessity compels 
you to go. 

Go then, at once — be there as settlers — be there to be 
enrolled — be there to vote, and thus save yourselves and 
your country. 

We are glad to see all around us preparing to move. 
Knowing that the day for the final strugsle has come, 
they do not hold back. Let others do their duty, and 
we are saved." 

The friends of free Kansas sought to amend this bill, 
and failing in that to defeat it, and in all their efforts they 
had to encounter the influence and votes of John Bell. 
Mr. Sew-ard moved to amend the Toombs bill, by ad- 
mitting Kansas into the Union, under the Topeba Con- 
stitution. John Bell voted against it. 

Mr. Trumbull moved ''that until the Territorial Legis- 
lature acts upon the subject, the owner of a slave has 
no right to take such sl.ave into the Territory of Kansas 
and there hold bim as a slave ; and every slave taken into 
the Territory of Kansas by his owner is hereby declared 
to be free, unless there is some valid act of the Legisla- 
tive Assembly under which he may be held as a slave;" 
and John Bell voted against it. 

Mr. Trumbull moved "that all the acts and proceed- 
ings of every body of men claiming to be a Jegislative as- 
sembly in Kansas are declared to be wholly and utterly 
null and void, and that no person shall hold any office or 
exercise any authority by virtue of any power derived 
from such assembly, and Mr. Bell voted in the ne^'ative. 
Mr. Collamer moved "that until the people of Kan.sas 
form a constitution and State government, there shall be 
neither slavery nor involuntary servituele in said Terri- 
tory"; and Mr. Bell voted No. 

I moved to strike out all after the enacting clause of the 
Toombs bill, and insert, that "'all acts passed by the Lesr- 
islaf.ure of Kansas, or by anv assembly acting as such, be 
and the same are hereby abrogated and declared void and 
of no effect"; and Mr. Bell voted against it. Now. 
the laws at which I aimed in this amendment, and 
which Mr. Bell would not vote to abrogate, were thus 
characterized by Hon. John M. ('layton of Del.aware, a 
man well known to the country, and one who was never 
suspected of fanaticism or abolitioni.sm. Mr. Clayton 
said: " The unjust, iniquitous, oppressive and infamous 
laws, enforced by the K.ansas Legislature, ought to be re- 
pealed." "The act proliibits nil freedom of discussion in 
Kansas on the great subject directly referred to the exclu- 
sive decision of the people in that Territory, strikes down 
the liberty of the press, too, and is an act as egregiously 
tyrannical .as ever was attempted by any of the Stuarts, 
Tailors or Plantagenets of England ; and this Senate per 
sists in declaring that we shall not repeal them." "I 
will not ever degrade myself by standinir for an instant 
by those abominable and infamous laws." "The Senate 
should wash its hands of all participation in these in- 
iquities." 

When the House put in the Army bill the proviso 
" That no part of the military force shall be employed in 
aid of the enforcement of any enactments of the alleged 
Legislative Assembly of Kansas; that it shall be the duty 
ot the President to use the military force in said Territo- 
ry to preserve the peace, suppress insurrections, repel in- 
vasion and protect persons and property therein, and 
upon the national highways in the State of Missouri or 
elsewhere from unlawful seizure and searches," John Bell 
voted to strike it out. 

The House put into one of their appropriation bills the 
proviso that " no part of the money hereby appropriated 
shall be expended for pro.sccuting any persons charged 
with treason or any other political offenefe in the Territory 
of Kansas ; and that the money shaU not be drawn until I 



all criminal prosecutions against any persons charged with 
treason shall be dismissed and every person who is re- 
strained of his liberty by reason of such prosecutions 
shall be released from confinement. Mr. Bell voted to 
strike it out, and thus leave the free State men, whose 
only offence was the framing of a free State constitution, 
and askina: admission into the Union, under an-est for 
treason. In 1858 John Bell voted asainstthe Lecompton 
Constitution. vSo did Douglas, Crittenden, Stuart and 
Broderick, and I ever have and ever shall freely acknowl- 
edge his and their services in defeating that product of 
force and fraud. 

I have now traced throueh the official journals of the 
Congress of the United States the " record " of John 
Bell. That " record " bears anjole evidence that the doc- 
trines of Mr. Calhoun, now the doctrines of the slave 
code Democracy, are accepted by him, and that the ag- 
gressive measures of the slave propagandists have re- 
ceived his support. That " record" of twenty-five years 
in the Congress of the United States affords indisputable 
evidence of his fidelity to the slavcholding interest, and 
this "record " is more full, more complete than the record 
of John C. Calhoun or any other public man of America 
in favor of slavery. J- Thomas Stevenson glibly pro- 
nounces it " without a blot." When the liberty loving 
christian men of Massachusetts shall endorse this " tp- 
cord" of John Bell, Massachusetts will have disavowed 
her principles, and disowned the recoi-d and cherished 
deeds of her sons. 

Mr. J. Thomas Stevenson repels the allegation, by 
whomsoever made, that the party of John Bell is "com- 
posed of pro-slavery men," .and he would have us be- 
lieve that the party of John Bell " look upon slavery as a 
dre.adful evil " The party of John Bell "look upon 
slavery as a dreadful evil!" That conglomeration of 
southern Whigs, Silver Greys, Cotton Whitrs, and Hun- 
kerized Know Nothings " look upon slaverv as a dreadful 
evil!" Wli.at credulity ! What simplicity ! How charm- 
ing and refreshing is this Arcadian-like simplicity of Mr. 
J.Thomas Stevenson! A m.an of the world; one who 
has watched the actions of the leaders and masses of the 
party of John Bell in both the North and South, would 
suppose that Mr. J. Thomas Steven.son belonged to that 
ancient but most respectable tribe of men who believe the 
sun rises in East Boston, sails up over State street, lingers 
over the State House and goes down in the waters of the 
Back Bay. Where, pray where, has Mr. Stevenson kept 
himself during the contests of the last fifteen years? 

Does Mr. Stevenson not know that the body, the great 
mass of the Bell party, are southern ^Vhigs — men who, 
with few honorable exceptions, have vied with the sl.ave 
code Democracy in fidelity to slavery? Does he not know 
that the few supporters of John Bell in the free States, 
with rare exceptions, have ever shown true fealty to the 
slave masters? Does he not know that the men in the 
North who rally at the tinkling of the little bells around 
the standard of John Bell belong to that class 
characterized some years ago by Mr. Webster as " Optim- 
ists and Quietists" — a cl.ass of men with whom it was al- 
ways too early or too late to aot aaainst the aggressive 
policy of the slave propasranda? Does he not know that 
the class of men in the North now supporting John Bell 
were the first to falter on the Texas question, the first to 
surrender the Wilmot Proviso, the first to welcfime and 
applaud the Compromise measures, the first to acquiesce 
in the Fugitive Slave act, and to execute it with " alac- 
rity"? Does he not know that in all the contests of the 
last fifteen years, these men have come before they were 
called, and run before they were sent, to do the biddintc 
of slave masters? Does he not know that they, if in op- 
position to the slave power at all, have been the first to 
strike their flag, and either to co-operate with the slave 
propagandists or to acquiesce in their acts? 

Surely Mr. Stevenson. — if be had forgotten how the 
southern Wbigs battled seven years against the right of 
petition, how they voted against the Wilmot Proviso, 
how the'- voted for the Fugitive Slave law, for the repeal 
of the Missouri Compromise, — micht at least have re- 
membered that they voted in the closing days of the last 
Congress against the admission of K.ansas into the Union 
as a free State — against that great measure of beneficence 
and freedom — the Homestead bill, — and against the te- 
peal of the cruel and outrageous laws of New Mexico, 
which not only perpetu.allv en.slaves the black nian, but 
authorizes employers to inflict degrading punishments 
upon white laboring men and women, and closes against 
their appeals for protection and justice the judicial tribu- 
nals. 

Mr. J. Thomas Stevenson is no more fortunate in his 
reference to the record of the men of the Union party 
than he is in his appeal to the record of their candidate. 
The record of the supporters of John Bell in the South, 



i7 



with rare exceptions, is a record of unfaltering fidelity to 
slavery, of fealty to the slave propagandists and the slave 
perpetualists. The imperishable records of the Kepnbhc 
wiU bear to coming generations the amplest evidence that 
they were ever switt to do the bidding of slavery. The 
record of the northern supporters of John Bell, with 
some few exceptions, is a record of fluctuating purposes, 
wavering counsels and inconsistent action, showing to 
this age and to coming ages that while they were false to 
Liberty they were not true to Slavery. 

Men of old Puritan and revolutionary Massachusetts, 
upon whose pathway the star of duty casts its radiant 
and steady light— you who beheve with Benjamin Frank- 
hn, that " slavery is an atrocious debasement of human 
nature" — with John Adams, that '' consenting to slavery 
is a sacrehgious breich of trust"— wii.h John Quincy 
Adams, that " slavery taints the very sources of moral 
principle"— with Daniel Webster, that " slavery is a con- 
tinual and permanent violation of human rights" — "op- 
posed to the whole spirit of the Gospel and to the teach- 
ings of Jesus Christ"— reject, I pray you, reject with 
loathing the false and guilty doctrine that in this crisis 
of the Hepubhc •' it is the part of patriotism and duty to 
recognize no political principle"— turn from a candidate 
whose record is blurred, blotted and stained with words 



and deeds for human slavery— spum with scorn all affilia 
tion with men who, in the South, are vieing with the 
slave code Democracy in fealty to the slave propagand- 
ists—who in the North are scoffing and jeering at the sa- 
cred cause of liberty, organizing Democratic aid societies, 
peddling and dickering with Democratic factions, to de- 
feat men whose only offence is their unswerving fidelity 
to the cause of human nature, now in peril in America, 
and •' consecrating," in the words of Whittier, 

their baseness to the cause 



Of Constitution, Union, and the Laws." 

Rally, men of Massachusetts, to the standard of a party 
that proclaims its principles and its policy,— a party that 
would engrave in letters of living hght upon the arches 
of the skies, so that the nations might read it, its undy- 
ing hostility to the domination and extension of slavery 
iu -America. Rally to the support of a candidate for the 
Chief Magistracy of the Repubhc, who penned these noble 
words: "Tliis is a world of compensations; and he, who 
would be no slave, must consent to have no slave. 
Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for 
themselves; and, under a just God, cannot long re- 
tain it." 



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" WINCHESTER'S OENUINE PREPARATIONS " 

OF THE 
[Made from the Formula of Dr. J. P. Cliurchill, of I'aris.] 

For the Prevention and Ciire of Consumption, Debility, Dyspepsia, Chronic 

Bronchitis, Asthma, Scrofula, and all Nervous Diseases. 

13^ WINCHESTER'S PREPARATIONS CONTAIN NO IRON. ^^ 

The success of the HYPOPHOSPHITES, in the cure of that great scourge of the race, 
CONSUMPTION, is " unparalleled in the annals of medicine." This new and thoroughly 
Scientific Remedy acts with INVAllIABLfi EFPICACY in all stages of tubercular diseases. It 
relieves the cough, checks the perspiration, subdues the chills and fever, diminishes the expec- 
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RAPIDITY WHICH IS REALLY MARVELOUS." C'«re is the rulc — i>ea</;, the exception. 

Their beneticial effects are equally fkompt and certain in all derangements of the Nervous 
and Blood Systems— being unsurpassed as a Nervous Tonic and generator of new and healthy 
blood ; while for cases of General Debility, Loss of Strength, Flesh, and Appetite, Dyspepsia, 
Neuralgia, Paralysis, Chronic Bronchitis, Asthma, Scrofula, Chronic Diarrhoea, it is the most 
efficacious treatment known. A FAIR TRIAL IS A CERTAIN CURE. 

PRICES :— In 7 and 16 oz. Bottles, at ,f I.OO and $2.00 each. 

WM. M. MASON, 96 Tremont St., (2d Floor.) 

Sole Agent for New England and British Provinces. 



V .. 



NATIONAL EEPUBLICAN NOMINATIONS. 

■ <■■ 

Election in all tlie States, Tnesday, ISTovember 6, 1860. 

FOR PRESIDENT, 

^BR^H^M LINCOLN, 

OF ILLINOIS. 
FOR VICE-PRESIDENT, 

H^NNiB^L ha.m:lin, 

OIP IVL^IlSrE. 



i0.6it0tt lall 




PUBLISHED EYEEY MOP.NING. 

SIX DOLLARS PER ANNUM. ...... SINGLE COPIES, TWO CENTS. 



THE NEW PENNY PAPER. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 

Piilliirs Per Annnm Single Copies, One Cent. Two Dollars Per Annnin Single Copies, Pour Cents. 

Liberal Discount to Clubs a^iid Agents, by the 

BEE PRINTING COMPANY, 

ISTos. 7 & 9 State Street. 



Shortly to be Published. 



The Greatest Book of the Season. 



BRIEF BIOGR^BHIES 

BY 

SAMUEL SMI LES, 

Author of " Self-Help,'' and " Life of George Ste/phenson.''' 

">A^ITII SIX STEEL I>OR TRAITS. 



Jamps Watt. 

Robert Stephenson. 

Dr. Arnold. 

Hugh Miller. 

Richard Cobden. 

Sir Edward Bulwer liytton, 

Francis Jeffrey. 

Ebenezer Elliott. 

George Borrow. 

John James Audubon. 

William MacGillivray. 

Lord John Russell. 



CONTENTS. 

Benjamin Disraeli. 
William Ewart Gladstone. 
Nathaniel Hawthorne. 
Thomas Carlyle. 
John Sterling. 
Leigh Hunt. 
Hartley Coleridge. 
Dr. Kitto. • 
Edgar Allan Poe. 
Theodore Hook. 
Dr. Andrew Combe. 
Robert Browning. 



Edwin Chadwick. 

Robert Nicoll. 

Samuel Bamford. 

Jolin Clare. 

Gerald Massey. 

Elizabeth Barrett Browninj 

Frances Brown. 

Sarah Margaret Fuller. 

Sarah Martin. 

Harriet Martineau. 

Mrs. Chisholm. 



O^ Copies sent by mail, free of postage, on receipt of price. .,S^ 
I]Sr ON^E VOLXJMIE, IGM^O., ILLUSTRATED. 

Price, $1.25. 
TICKNOR & FIELDS, Publishers, 

BOSTON", 



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